Dutch police announced on Monday that they had broken up a “large” brawl involving around “300 people” at a polling station in the Netherlands for Turkey’s elections, leaving at least two people injured.
The fight erupted on Sunday night at the RAI conference center in Amsterdam, where Turkish-Dutch voters were able to vote early ahead of Turkey’s May 14 presidential election, according to Dutch police and media.
Holland / Amsterdam / Now the time has come!
If you do this, you ensure that you no longer know what to do before you start working. pic.twitter.com/xXkLpiLB2e
— Mustafa Deniz (@mustafaadeniz) May 7, 2023
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, 69, faces the most uncertain election since he took power and faces a united opposition in a country in crisis for the first time in twenty years.
“The organization in charge of election security informed the police that the situation was getting out of control,” the Amsterdam police said around 21:00 (1900 GMT).
Upon arrival, police “found a chaotic situation inside the RAI with a violent brawl involving about 300 people,” police said in a statement, adding that “at least two people were injured.”
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Dutch media published images on Monday showing dozens of police officers, some in riot gear or accompanied by dogs, separating the various factions.
According to Dutch public broadcaster NOS, the dispute, which broke out shortly before the office was closed, was sparked by a dispute between representatives of opposing parties.
“There was shouting, panic and chaos,” said a witness cited by NOS. According to the police and local media, calm returned a few hours later.
The parties to the conflict were not named by the authorities.
The Turkish-Dutch community in the Netherlands numbers around 400,000 people, mostly descendants of workers who emigrated to Europe in the 1960s/70s.